My name is Grace and I'm a girl with a passion for food. What does it mean to be healthy? To me, it's staying active and eating food with good quality ingredients. I use my kitchen as a canvas for creative meals. I am no expert, but I hope you can find some useful information. I like to use simple ingredients to make meals that are quick, healthy, and fun!

Category Archives: Food

ground cinnamon (If you don’t have apple pie spice, cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves will do)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 teaspoon of salt

5 tablespoons of melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375. Flour the bottom of a muffin tin.

Place a piece of pie crust in the bottom of each cup so it covers the bottom and comes up the sides about halfway

Mix together sliced and peeled apples, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of salt, and apple pie spice until the apples are coated. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

Topping

Aldi has a really good apple cobbler topping for 99 cents. But, if you don’t have that, in a separate bowl mix together flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and about a tablespoon of cinnamon. Mix in the egg until blended.

Final Steps

Pour the apples into each muffin cup until they are filled to the top with apples. You may have to cut them smaller if they don’t fit in very well. (I ended up having to do this). I took a mini ice-cream scooper or a spoon and scooped one heaping scoop or the topping onto each cup.

A healthy spinach artichoke dip? You got it! This dip was half gone before I could snap this picture before devouring the rest. I just started eating cottage cheese a lot lately because I have been feeding it to my 9 month old. I mix it with fruit for her breakfast sometimes. I take a bite, she takes a bite, and we go back and forth. It’s high in protein and she’s always super hungry. Well, she loves it! It has also helped her tummy because it has probiotics similar to yogurt. Who knew?! Anyways, cottage cheese is great protein and therefore great for weight loss and curbing appetite. It is overall an amazing food.

Anyhow, I got this CRAZY idea to make a spinach artichoke dip using cottage cheese instead of mayo and all that unhealthy stuff the dip normally consists of. Well, TRY THIS. Trust me. It was so delicious, I started immediately calling people telling them to make it. (I have never done this before.)

Here is the SIMPLE and HEALTHY recipe….

Sautee half a bag of fresh organic spinach, half a can of chopped up artichoke hearts, and freshly crushed garlic in a little bit of coconut or olive oil. I used the Pampered Chef garlic press to release the fresh garlic flavors into the dip. I love this thing. It leaves me smelling like garlic for days, but who cares? Not I. 🙂

I then mixed the warm veggies in a glass mixing bowl with a container of cottage cheese. I added half a cup of shredded cheddar and about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. I added about 1 tsp. of pepper. There you have it– Spinach artichoke dip!

It’s only September 1st and I’m already in the mood for fall. The scent of nutmeg and cinnamon wafting through the house is one of my favorite things! Here is a recipe I tried for mini pumpkin pies. They can be served with ice cream, whipped cream, or eaten by themselves. If you love pumpkin pie, then you will love these. They would be great to take to work in your lunch or for small hands because of their miniature size. They are crustless and topped with cinnamon sugar.

I am always looking for ways to improve my recipes, and I think I have finally discovered the best way to cook lasagna! Do not cook the noodles before layering! Leaving them “raw” allows them to soak up the sauce and juices and make the dish have tons of flavor. The noodles aren’t overcooked. Your husband is happy and eats 3 servings.

I normally have always used ricotta cheese and cooked lasagna noodles as layers in meat lasagna. However, I decided to replace ricotta by using cottage cheese and not cooking the noodles beforehand to soak up the excess water. I was sick of runny lasagnas that were hard to slice and too mushy.

Cottage cheese is low in fat and high in protein. It’s sworn by athletes and people trying to lose weight. It has a large amount of casein protein (the kind for muscle building). It is also lower in calories than ricotta. Win-win!

The layers of my lasagna were as follows:

Red Sauce: 1 lb. of 90% lean beef cooked with 1/2 a yellow onion and 3/4 of a jar of pasta sauce (or your homemade sauce) in a large pan. Add Italian spices and garlic as desired.

Cheese: various cheeses (sliced provolone, sliced or shredded mozzarella, Parmesan, sharp cheddar or whatever you like! Normally I only use parm and mozzarella but I decided to go crazy with a variety of cheeses. I was glad I did!

I layered the bottom of my dish starting with a thin layer of the beef/sauce mix.